The Art of Falling
by GekiDasaDaze
Summary: After surviving a deadly match against an even deadlier foe, Maka and Soul find out that there is something very wrong with their Soul Resonance. New secrets are discovered, but can they discover themselves in the process?


It seemed like we were stuck in those overly-clichéd movies where our loved ones were dying whilst we could only watch as the doctor mournfully told us that it was too late. My stomach felt sick and the ceiling spun around me, slowly becoming a blur. I squeezed my eyes shut, only to open them by the sound of the door opening. I turned my head to see who it was and easily recognized the face—Soul's. He walked in, taking in his surroundings, before plopping himself on one of the plastic molded chairs. He still had bandages on, and some marks on his cheeks and neck, a living proof of the harsh battles he'd survived. Still, mine were worse.

"Where were you?" I asked him softly, careful not to wake the two patients in the room.

"Talked to Sid," he replied, and I was surprised how hoarse his voice sounded.

"What… what did he say?"

I saw the slight pain in his eyes, but it vanished, just as soon as it appeared.

"He said that their bodies are too damaged. Even they're internal organs will take a really long time to heal. _If_ they heal."

"Don't say that," I reprimanded him. "How long, exactly?"

"Maybe about four to five months. But that's only for Tsubaki," I saw his eyes run over Black Star's broken form, and his body trembled. "But for the Meister, considering his coma… there's no knowing when he'll wake up…"

It was silent except for the soft beeping of the monitor that showed their pulse. I kept my eyes on the floor, not wanting to see how Tsubaki or Black Star looked like with masks on their faces or needles in their wrists. I was definitely sick now.

I cringed, memories of the past week flooding my mind. It wasn't supposed to happen. That Mosquito wasn't supposed to be so strong. The Black Blood wasn't supposed to take over our own judgment. And Black Star wasn't supposed to have come and stop us.

_Not if…_

"You could have stopped this from happening," my voice shook, but I wasn't embarrassed. The anger I felt towards myself was being redirected to my partner.

Soul looked up at me, an expression unreadable forming on his face. "What?"

"I said…" I clenched my fists on my lap. "If you pulled me out the madness, then Black Star wouldn't have been in coma."

"So you're saying this is my fault?!"

My face felt hot, tears threatening to spill out. I knew I was being unreasonable, but I couldn't help it. I wanted so badly to rid myself of the anger and guilt.

"Well, it is, isn't it? I mean, you don't have to do anything. You just transform into a scythe and that's it! Because of you and that stupid black blood, we go what? _Psycho!_ And now, look what happened!" Stupid girl! Shut up! _Shut up!_

Soul looked as if he'd been slapped. "Well I'm _sorry_ if I protected you from that attack back then!"

I stood up. "I never asked you to protect me!" _Damn! __**Stop it!**_

"You never had to ask! It's my job as a weapon to protect my master!"

We were already shouting, and if it weren't for the nurse and Spirit entering the room, we would've continued for the rest of the day.

"Please stop it, you'll wake the patients," Nygus warned us.

We were glaring at each other, chests heaving, faces red with anger. Soul's face was pained somewhat, and I knew it was because of me. The thought of it made my chest constrict painfully.

"Or better yet, leave the room," Spirit added as he stepped between us.

"Gladly," Soul gritted out angrily and trudged off.

I watched as he walked away, closing the door with a slam. Collapsing back into the couch, I covered my face into my palms and sobbed. _How can I be so selfish?_

My father sat into the chair Soul had previously sat in. He reached out and patted my head. I thought he was just trying to be as fatherly as possible, even though I knew he felt increasingly awkward by the minute.

"Maka-chan, what happened?"

"Nothing."

"Did the boy do something naughty to you? Where is he?! I'm gonna kill him!"

"No!" I half-shouted and the nurse gave me a dirty look. "It's nothing okay? Just leave me alone." Seeing my father's dejected face, I quickly added a "please?" to soften my words.

Spirit sighed and crossed his arm. "You lost control of it again, didn't you?"

I quickly wiped my eyes with my sleeve and turned away.

"Am I right?"

"This is all my fault," I stated, bitterness dripping off my every word. "Because of me, Tsubaki's wounded. Black Star's in a coma. And now Soul…" my voice broke.

"Shh, it's not all your fault," Papa rubbed my shoulders as if to soothe me.

"You don't understand! I thought I could control it… I-I was too confident," the tears were falling freely now, and I was too anguished to acknowledge Sid as he entered the room. "And I… I was _this_ close to killing them!"

"Ms. Albarn, I suggest you lower your voice or risk interrupting your friends' slumber," the nurse told me, obviously getting annoyed.

"Yes, yes," Sid waved his hand. He turned to me with a smile. "How are the ribs going, Maka?"

With tentative fingers, I touched my side and winced. They still hurt like hell.

"Fine." I lied, and hid my tears with my bangs.

"Arms?"

"Same."

"Back?"

"Same."

"Head?"

I sighed. "I'm fine, Sid-sensei. But how's Black Star?"

He glanced at the nurse, who seemed to be done with their daily check-ups. She flipped her notepad and scanned its contents. "Tsubaki-chan is doing well. Her injuries are healing faster than I had imagined. Black Star too. Except for the fact that—"

"—he's not waking up. Right?" I gritted out.

"She didn't say anything about—" Spirit began.

"I'm leaving."

I headed towards the door. I was so sick of all this mess, sick of seeing my friends slowly _dying_. Sick of myself. I just wanted to run, and never come back. Although before I got away, a hand caught my arm, preventing my escape.

"Maka." It was my dad.

"Let go," I ordered, although my voice still croaked.

Sid approached me. "Shinigami-sama wants to see you. He has something… _important_ to tell you. And Soul as well."

*****

We walked in awkward silence as we made our way to Shinigami's office. I wanted so badly to apologize to Soul for what I did to him earlier, but whenever I opened my mouth to speak, it immediately snapped shut. What could I say? Simply apologize? But suppose he didn't forgive me? I was never good in asking for forgiveness. Thoughts were swimming around in my head, but it was becoming increasingly frustrating, so I gave up on that. I decided to go and take the plunge.

"Soul, I—"I abruptly cut myself off.

The weapon blinked one eye open and regarded me with nonchalance.

"Um, well—"_Speak! Apologize, dammit! _

Soul was staring at me now with expectant eyes, but I couldn't make my tongue move. My face burned with embarrassment, or was it something else? I didn't know anymore.

"Let's hurry. Shinigami-sama's expecting us," he said.

I inwardly cursed. I would have to do this. "Soul, wait."

He kept walking, as if he didn't hear me.

"I-I'm sorry, okay?"

All of sudden, he stopped walking and slowly turned around to face me. His expression was grave, and for a terrible moment I thought he was going to ignore me again. That is, until he grinned, showing no sign of anger at all.

"C'mon we'll be late."

I ran up to Soul and turned to him in sheer amazement. "You're… you're not mad?"

"I didn't say that."

"But—"

"Holding grudges is _not_ cool."

He continued walking in a steady pace as I dumbly stared at his back. Sometimes, Soul could be so much mature than me. He stopped and waved his hand.

"You coming or not?"

I grinned and caught up to him. "Whatever."

We reached the Death Room in matter of minutes. Soul knocked politely on the door before pushing it open. Inside, Stein and Spirit were already discussing something over tea. When they noticed us, they immediately stopped, which I thought was odd. It gave me a feeling that they were hiding something from us. Unexpectedly, Shinigami appeared on the mirror.

"Ah, Maka-chan, Soul-kun!" he greeted us with his usual animated voice. "Finally."

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Soul apologized.

"Oh, no! Don't mind it. Spirit and Stein here were telling me very… _interesting_ theories." He said, and Spirit shot him a warning glance.

"Theories? What theories?" I questioned. _What were they talking about?_

Shinigami disregarded my question. "Come, come. I want to know everything that happened."

"What do you mean?"

He took a sip of tea. "The incident."

I understood immediately. He meant the incident when we lost control of ourselves in the battle against Mosquito. I frowned, wondering why they wanted to know.

"Well, you know, the usual," Soul replied wryly. "Mosquito was too strong. We had no choice. Then we lost it."

Shinigami looked at him earnestly. "Soul-kun, I think you can do a better explanation than that. It's vital that we know every single detail."

"Why do you have to know anyway?" Soul muttered angrily. I glared at him; it wasn't like him to be so disrespectful.

"I know you're upset. But they're not only your friends. They're my students also. Don't you think I deserve to know what happened too?"

Soul looked slightly taken aback by the statement. He was acting just like me a few minutes ago. I guess he didn't think that there were others who cared about Black Star and Tsubaki too.

He sighed heavily. "Fine. It started at the fight with Mosquito. I didn't know why, but—"he glanced at me momentarily. "—ever since we did Soul Resonance, Maka was… well, feeling really, really weak."

My dad frowned. "What do you mean by, 'really, really weak'?"

"Kinda like she was sick or something. Tired, maybe. I don't know how to explain it, but it was like our Soul Resonance was falling apart." He looked at me to see if his words had upset me, but I just nodded to him encouragingly. Anyway, it was true. There was this weird feeling, like Soul was slipping away from me…

"Okay. Do you know why?"

"No."

The three men exchanged worried glances.

"Please continue," Stein said.

"So then me and Maka realized that we were already losing," Soul said. "That's where he came in."

"He?" Shinigami asked, confused.

Soul face hardened, eyebrows knitting together. "My Demon."

I swore I saw a scowl coming from Shinigami, even behind his mask. "…Demon, huh?"

"Shinigami-sama, what…?"

"It's like an aftereffect of the Black blood," he told the ostensibly clueless weapon. "I have heard numerous cases similar to Soul's. It's a good thing that you haven't been consumed by it yet."

We kept silent. So we weren't the only ones, after all. However, it didn't make me feel any better. Shinigami turned to Soul and told him to continue.

"Well, after—after _that… _we don't really know what exactly happened. The next thing we saw when we gained consciousness was… was…" he left the statement hanging in the air. Seeing his expression, I bit my lip. It was obvious to what we had seen—Black Star and Tsubaki, all drenched in their own blood…

Fortunately, Shinigami understood. "Ah, yes. So basically you lost control of your actions and ended up… well, I get the point. That is quite troublesome."

_That's an understatement, _I thought.

"Shinigami-sama, what about their assignment?" Stein asked.

"Ah, of course! Thank you for reminding me. Now that this whole mess is cleared up—"he clapped his hands together. "Here is the mission I'm assigning you!"

"M-Mission?" Soul said. "No one told us anything about a mission."

"I know this is sudden, but this is very important. Most of our students probably don't know this, and maybe you don't too. Generations come and pass, thinking that Shibusen is the only Death Weapon Meister Academy. But, in all actuality, it is most definitely not."

I blinked, not absorbing his words. "Wait. What?"

Shinigami sighed, his tone becoming serious. "It's hard to understand, yes. Especially when you've lived your life with that knowledge. But it is true. There are plenty of Academies similar to Shibusen, all scattered across the globe."

"This is crazy," Soul mumbled, clutching his head in confusion.

"Is it? Well listen, we Meisters and Weapons are like countless ants, overpopulated, impossible to contain. But if there were only one anthill, what would happen to the rest?" he said, and I was beginning to understand, if maybe only a little. "Did you think that Meisters and Weapons only lived here in the United States?"

"Well… yeah," said Soul. "But _this_… all of a sudden…"

"I'm sorry if this is such a shock to you. Even my son was surprised~," said Shinigami, his voice returning to its playful tone "Anyhow, now that you get the picture, Spirit here will be explaining to you you're mission."

The Death Scythe turned to us. "You all know that ever since Asura awakened, madness has spread throughout the world. We have been recruiting ex-Shibusen students, mostly Death Scythes, to aid us in our fight against the Kishin. And you also know that most of them have refused the preposition."

I nodded. There were only a few Death Scythes that I trusted, like Marie-sensei and Yumi. However, I still had my doubts on Justin…

"We have sent out numerous troops throughout the entire continents in search for the Kishin's location, but it will most likely be futile. In our current condition, we are short on numbers, and we need all the help we can get," he said. "So, this is where you come in."

He continued. "The both of you will travel by plane to England, London, and register in the Meister Weapon Academy there. You will serve as… _negotiators_ and ask for their assistance. But before that, you must know that their motives are not clear yet. Do not trust them. While you are staying there, observe the events that are happening and report them to Shinigami-sama." He handed us an envelope each.

"Those are the plane tickets and some money."

I tucked it safely into the pocket of my robe. "How long are we going to stay there?" I asked.

The god tapped his fingers on his teacup. "Hmmm, maybe about 3 wee—no, too short. Ah, I suppose a month would be best suited in this situation, don't you think?"

Soul's jaw loosely hung open; mine dropped to the floor.

"A m-m-month? A whole freaking _month_?" If I wasn't so frozen with shock, I would've smacked him for being so rude.

"Yes. Don't worry, if it's you two, then I'm sure you'll get used to it," he remarked. "Moreover, this is also a good oppurtunity for you to figure out the reason why you can't use Soul Resonance."

"But still--!"

"We're counting on you! Besides, you have my son to share your pain. He's assigned to some school in Africa," he sighed.

I glanced at my partner. He looked just as stunned as I was. This was just too much for one day.

"Well, that's it actually," said Spirit.

"Thanks for your patience~! You have 30 hours before you depart. Use the time wisely," Shinigami said, waving his large hands. "Bye Bye!"

We walked out the Death Room slowly, dragging our feet and disheveled heads out the door.

"Ah, wait! I forgot to tell you something!" Spirit called out. We turned around to face him.

"We are not sure what side they are in, so don't ever let them know that you are students of Shibusen," said Spirit.

"Oh, yes. And one more thing since I won't be able to see you two off," Shinigami reminded, his voice turning grave once again.

"Don't die."

******

_Finally, Chap 1 is finished!_

_Sorry for any typos or mistakes in grammar… I don't have muse! XD_

_Hope you enjoyed it!_

_Review?_


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